Ryse developer Crytek “not 100 percent happy with Xbox One sales”

Sequel will have to wait for "higher installed base across next-gen."

Occasionally, people ask me why Ars sometimes covers the relative sales performance of various consoles. "Who cares which console is 'winning'?" the argument goes. "I just want to play games." And my response is generally that relative sales performance has a direct impact on what games actually get made for the various consoles.

Case in point: troubledRyse developer Crytek talked to Eurogamer recently about the potential for a sequel to its Xbox One launch exclusive, and the company expressed concern that there just weren't enough sales of the Microsoft console to make a sequel worthwhile.

"We have a good relationship with Microsoft. We are constantly looking at what we can do together," Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli said. "We are not 100 percent happy with Xbox One sales right now. So we want to wait 'till the current-gen and next-gen catches up. For Ryse 2, we aren't saying it's canceled. It's our IP. It just has to wait for the right timing. And the right timing means higher installed base across next-gen."

Yerli's comments can be read broadly as dissatisfaction with the number of "next-gen" consoles overall; the installed base for both the PS4 and Xbox One looks relatively small compared to the tens of millions of Xbox 360s and PS3s already in players' homes. And Yerli said he hasn't exactly been dissatisfied with the sales of Ryse on Xbox One so far, placing sales "in the forecast of what Microsoft has always shared with us" thanks in part to "tremendous promotion and IP awareness."

Still, the PlayStation 4 has been selling significantly betterthan the Xbox One worldwide, even though Microsoft's sales performance has improved since unbundling the Kinect. Given that, it's easy to see why developers might blanch at hitching their wagons exclusively to Microsoft's console. Yerli told Eurogamer pointedly that Crytek can "do whatever we want with [the sequel] with whoever we want," despite rumors that Microsoft wanted to purchase the rights to the franchise.

For the time being, Ryse 2 isn't even an official project inside Crytek, and the Xbox One isn't selling poorly enough to look like a Wii U-style also-ran to potential developers. Still, if Sony continues to extend its lead with actual hardware in people's homes, developers will eventually be tempted to prioritize PS4 development.

Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl

For the time being, Ryse 2 isn't even an official project inside Crytek, and the Xbox One isn't selling poorly enough to look like a Wii U-style also-ran to potential developers.

I am not sure if this statement is 100% true.

If the rumors are to believed there was a sequel in the works. Crytek is also going through some problems, a healthy company, does not not pay their staff. I suspect the project was postponed for several reasons. I suspect Xbox One will slowly get closer and closer to PS4 sales once its fully launched.

With that said Crytek is pretty much the only developer that took to the task of using the Xbox One strengths to their advantage. While Ryse would look just as good on PS4 for a varity of reasons, and 4k Ryse is comming to PC, I suspect Cryptk was looking at better launch day title sales then they got ( them even doing a launch title was odd ).

Maybe Xbox One sales would be better if its "big exclusive" was one people actually *want* to play.

Kinda, yeah. A buddy had Ryse, I saw it, it looked very pretty, and it also looked about how reviews described it. I was uninterested. It's a game I might pick up at $10 if I was bored. And I say this as somebody who wants to buy more games for his Xbox One. I have $60 burning a hole in my pocket, waiting for a game on the platform I want to spend it on.

Maybe Xbox One sales would be better if its "big exclusive" was one people actually *want* to play.

Kinda, yeah. A buddy had Ryse, I saw it, it looked very pretty, and it also looked about how reviews described it. I was uninterested. It's a game I might pick up at $10 if I was bored. And I say this as somebody who wants to buy more games for his Xbox One. I have $60 burning a hole in my pocket, waiting for a game on the platform I want to spend it on.

The "big exclusive" would be Titanfall. I guess he was implying that no one wants to play that game. It did get good ratings.

I really can't comment on whether people want to play that game or not... I don't play it.

Wait a sec. So the developers who create an engine (cryengine) that supports 9 platforms goes on and creates a game with said in-hose developed engine and releases it on 2 platforms (xbone, windows). Wtf?

Why on earth did they skip the PS4 or even Linux if the engine already supports it? Could not have been the money obviously, as the company is struggling financially.

Or is Crytec just a newer entrant in the "being screwed over by a Microsoft business partnership" group?

Interesting... When the Wii was stomping on the PS3 and Xbox 360 in sales, were similar articles written? We really don't want a one console future. Look how Sony responded with the PS4. I hope MS and Nintendo will now do the same.

I enjoyed Ryse for what it was but it is rare for launch titles which are new IPs to be that good. There are rushing to a deadline working with new tech, new tools while trying to create a new story with new mechanics, etc. I would think Ryse 2 if it ever came about might actually be pretty good now that they have feedback on the first and are experienced with the machine and dev tools.

I personally found the PS4, WiiU, and Xbox One "launch window" titles kind of bland and uninteresting. I find i still just play what I could have played last GEN.

For the time being, Ryse 2 isn't even an official project inside Crytek, and the Xbox One isn't selling poorly enough to look like a Wii U-style also-ran to potential developers.

I am not sure if this statement is 100% true.

If the rumors are to believed there was a sequel in the works. Crytek is also going through some problems, a healthy company, does not not pay their staff. I suspect the project was postponed for several reasons. I suspect Xbox One will slowly get closer and closer to PS4 sales once its fully launched.

With that said Crytek is pretty much the only developer that took to the task of using the Xbox One strengths to their advantage. While Ryse would look just as good on PS4 for a varity of reasons, and 4k Ryse is comming to PC, I suspect Cryptk was looking at better launch day title sales then they got ( them even doing a launch title was odd ).

Gave them a way to showcase Cryengine on a next-gen console.

Star Citizen, Kingdom Come and Evolve are the only non Crytek games I know of that are using it. Not sure how big their Cryengine business is these days.

The fact that every game needs to be a blockbuster to be successfuly is a big issue. If Ryse had a lower budget and more modest expectations, it might have been OK. As someone who really loves the beat-em-up/hack-n-slash genre, I've bought and enjoyed plenty of mediocre/decent games. like Drakengard 3 or Dynasty Warriors 8, for recent examples. Although the fact that they don't take themselves too seriously helps.

The Crytek guy giving the interview comes across as incredibly douchey with the suggestion that the only employees angry about not getting paid are those who aren't responsible enough to save for hard times. His comments on free-to-play being the future are also concerning. Crytek makes decent games, but nothing special apart from the graphics. F2P games can't have PC-crippling graphics because they need a huge userbase to get enough people spending money to be viable - they need to run on every crappy laptop in existence. Take away the impressive graphics, and Crytek has nothing noteable to offer a market that is absolutely glutted with shooters.

Eurogamer has been pretty relentless in their coverage of the how the Xbox One falls short of the PS4, in particular focusing on the "resolutiongate" angle at length. This is not their first article in recent days to call out Xbox for selling poorly as well. I'm not suggesting that their coverage is biased, but the story that seems most interesting to them is how Xbox is failing, and maybe that's what their readers want to hear (reader comments tend to be overwhelmingly negative). Somehow, Microsoft has dug the Xbox brand into a major hole in Europe.

Maybe Xbox One sales would be better if its "big exclusive" was one people actually *want* to play.

Kinda, yeah. A buddy had Ryse, I saw it, it looked very pretty, and it also looked about how reviews described it. I was uninterested. It's a game I might pick up at $10 if I was bored. And I say this as somebody who wants to buy more games for his Xbox One. I have $60 burning a hole in my pocket, waiting for a game on the platform I want to spend it on.

The "big exclusive" would be Titanfall. I guess he was implying that no one wants to play that game. It did get good ratings.

I really can't comment on whether people want to play that game or not... I don't play it.

Oh, is that what he meant? Yeah, Titanfall is plenty of fun, and a fair portion of XB1 owners I know have it (and I even know some guys who have it on PC).

Considering that XBox One has a projected 5 year life span (at least) this console is grossly underpowered.It doesn't even handle all current games at full 1080p let alone 4k. Even a modest PC surpasses the One by quite a margin.Cutting corners apparently has a backlash when taken too far. Former consoles were at the cutting edge at their debut and slowly grew old. XBox One is doddering since its birth.

Here's hoping this and the sub-expected Titanfall sales help bring about the downfall of "exclusives". The entire concept is really pointless today, why not just bring out every game for every platform? They're very similar on the hardware size now.

Considering that XBox One has a projected 5 year life span (at least) this console is grossly underpowered.It doesn't even handle all current games at full 1080p let alone 4k. Even a modest PC surpasses the One by quite a margin.Cutting corners apparently has a backlash when taken too far. Former consoles were at the cutting edge at their debut and slowly grew old. XBox One is doddering since its birth.

I'm pretty sure you could label all the consoles as modest performers. No need to single out just the One.

It's hip and cool to hate on Xbox in Europe. Sony's consoles have always been their darling, and they took a lot of crap last gen for PS3 not performing as well as Xbox 360 for multiplatform games. So they like kicking Microsoft when they're down. Makes them feel superior.

While consoles sales numbers are important (MS using "shipped" is disheartening), attach rate I've always thought to be pretty important also, considering the revenue model for console licensing, as an important yardstick to measure the health of a console ecosystem.

With regards to the install base, I understand the pull to continue to develop for last gen, but now that I have a PS4, I don't WANT to play last gen, and if the remake trends continue, I'll just wait for you to release those on current gen. It took WAY too long to get to 1080p (calm down PC master race, I can't use a keyboard and mouse for anything but civilization and Starcraft), and quite frankly I LOVE the new graphical fidelity (especially the infinite draw distances finally). Maybe crytek should focus on more than ocular sex (graphics) to sell a game.

In the long run, the PS4 can't really win, because it needs the XB1, just like Coke needs Pepsi. If not for the tension between them, no one would buy either one. (Check the reviews, or the current Ars article: always about which is better, never about why do they exist at all, being little more than mediocre PC clones, internally.)

Which essentially boils down to: marketing, hype, blather. You add nothing to the debate, but I agree with your most substantive points: i) Nobody benefits in a one-horse race, and ii) these consoles are glorified PCs.

But on point ii): if everyone made their own PC then there would be no reason to buy a (weak, watered-down PC) console - fine, but not everyone has the time and/or the expertise for this. My days of endless tinkering and upgrading and getting optimal drivers for a self-made PC are over, some people just want to sit and play.

I was waiting, waiting, waiting for a Steam Machine to actually, you know, be available to buy for money. After the CES announcement, not much has happened on that front. So I plumped for a relatively cheap option: $359 for a PS4 would be cheaper than I can make a competent gaming PC, and I can enjoy it - and the games - now.

On point i), I agree we need Xbox to succeed, to offer proper competition - but in the wake of terrible social media coverage, mishandled PR, backtracking by MS, and now removing the one great USP, the Kinect, to boost sales, MS looks like it's all over the place here, and Sony is just cleaning up.

Eurogamer has been pretty relentless in their coverage of the how the Xbox One falls short of the PS4, in particular focusing on the "resolutiongate" angle at length. This is not their first article in recent days to call out Xbox for selling poorly as well. The site's reader comments tend to be overwhelmingly negative. I'm not suggesting that their coverage is biased, but the story that seems most interesting is how Xbox is failing, and maybe that's what their readers want to hear. Somehow, Microsoft has dug the Xbox brand into a major hole in Europe.

It's hip and cool to hate on Xbox in Europe. Sony's consoles have always been their darling, and they took a lot of crap last gen for PS3 not performing as well as Xbox 360 for multiplatform games. So they like kicking Microsoft when they're down. Makes them feel superior.

Well, quite apart from conflating 'Europe' with 'Eurogamer' for rhetorical effect, don't forget that the PS3 went down terribly in Western Europe at first: it was released late because of US demand, and was terribly overpriced (in dollar conversion terms). Adoption was initially slow, and Sony had a *lot* of ground to make up - but to Sony's credit, they played the long game, offered all kinds of benefits to ownership (e.g. the PlayTV, PSN) and have overcome that sticky launch. They were never going to make that mistake again with PS4.

Microsoft fumbled with the Xbox One. They have to continue on with the mistakes made.

For Crytek and Ryse, Microsoft promoted the heck out of that game. Ryse would have sold half of what they did sell if it weren't for the promotion and the fact that there were very little games to choose from on the console at launch.

The main reason I see Crytek taking a potential Ryse 2 multiplatform is because they can tap into new audiences who would be more willing to try it than the Xbox One owners who are disappointed by the original.

It's completely valid for developer to hesitate an exclusive agreement for Xbox One because of sales, but the public doesn't want to hear about it from a developer who isn't making games we care about. It translates to "I don't care if that game gets made let alone which console it comes to."

Why is Crytek blaming the Xbox One when Ryse scored a 5.8 user score on Metacritic? That's tied with Duke Nukem Forever. Even the critics, who usually give better scores for big-name games, gave it a 60, which is an instant death warrant for any game.

If anything, Crytek should be blaming itself and all the other Xbox One launch game companies who released crappy games.

Why is Crytek blaming the Xbox One when Ryse scored a 5.8 user score on Metacritic? That's tied with Duke Nukem Forever. Even the critics, who usually give better scores for big-name games, gave it a 60, which is an instant death warrant for any game.

If anything, Crytek should be blaming itself and all the other Xbox One launch game companies who released crappy games.

I didn't understand this article as meaning ,"Our game bombed because of the Xbox One," but rather, "I don't think the XB1's install base is big enough to justify sequel yet."